Kingdoms of Amalur Game Review

Kingdoms of Amalur has been well hyped, with so many creative minds behind the project that it sounds like they’re just name-dropping at this point. R.A. Salvator and Todd MacFarlane are two of the most well-known names that are sure to impress, but many other experienced people make up this project as well. The main focus of the developers behind the big names is on gameplay. You can tell that the team has focused on making combat feel natural and exciting, with an action RPG slant that keeps things interesting. It feels very smooth and almost arcade paced, a strong departure from the slower and more cumbersome focus that other RPGs share.

Kingdoms of Amalur, at its heart, is an expansive open-world RPG that gives you an entire world to explore and quest through. The quests and sidequests are engaging and plentiful, so it would not be surprising if you end up spending hundreds of hours in this world. This land has plenty of standard fantasy conventions, but more than enough interesting locations and characters that you get drawn in to the plot. The excellent voice acting assists with the immersion factor, as this is commonly an area that is overlooked in other RPGs.

The story begins with your death, freeing you from predestined fate that all of the other people of this world share. You’re the Fateless One, and you choose your path throughout the game. The entire world is well developed through an immersive collection of lore, history and politics, but this doesn’t always come through while you’re going on quests. Kingdoms of Amalur ends up feeling quite similar to a single player edition of an MMORPG, such as World of Warcraft–a trait that works out well for the game.

While Kingdoms of Amalur is an entertaining and overall solid game, it does have plenty of faults. The world is very fleshed out, but it pulls so many generic fantasy elements that it can end up being slightly forgettable at certain points. It’s not quite as wide open of an RPG as the Elder Scrolls games are, but it’s still broad enough to fit the definition of an open-world game. The menu interface could use some work as well, as it can be cumbersome to navigate through. The other failing is, while you have a ton of sidequests, not many of them actually affect the world in a noticeable manner. This can be quite disconcerting when you’re supposedly this wholly unique adventurer in the world.

Kingdoms of Amalur offers more than enough positives to offset the faults. The combat is incredibly engaging in a way that very few other RPGs are, and the story is compelling enough to keep you hooked. Given the creative team behind this game, the world could have been much more unique. Even so, if you’re looking for an open world action RPG experience that is sure to occupy some free time, take a look at Kingdoms of Amalur.

Author Byline:

Sean is tech-enthusiast that invests more time and money in new toys than he does on rent. When he’s not learning the latest tricks for his gadgets find him contributing to ATTSavings or on Twitter @SeanTR.